Maritime Resources and the Face of South Jersey

Mary HuffordFolk life Specialist for the American Folk life Center, Library of Congress

Water has shaped New Jersey as much as it is possible to shape a state without creating an island or a peninsula. Whether salty, brackish, or fresh, water is everywhere in evidence- molding the state's contours and toponymy, its technology and character. It appears under many guises, as bogs, rivers, swamps, marshes, bays, inlets, cripples, spongs, puddles, spillways, and watersheds. The names for some of these are the sole reminders of the American Indians who first attended to them, names like Metedeconk, Manasquan, Hopatcong, Raritan, and Kittattiny. Other names for water places - Bivalve, Camden, Port Republic, Barnegat Light, Keansburg,